


Lights Out

by dogmatix



Category: Among Us (Video Game), The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Genre: Alien Impostor(s) (Among Us), Alternate Universe - Murderbot Diaries Fusion, GFY, Gen, Human Crewmate(s) (Among Us), Murderbot likes its humans, Murderbot living up to its name, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:34:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28653585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogmatix/pseuds/dogmatix
Summary: Eden is a security guard on board the Skeld, a large science vessel probing the outer reaches of explored space. There's an Imposter on board, but (depending on who you ask) that's not the real problem.
Relationships: Dr. Mensah & Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries)
Comments: 68
Kudos: 128





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> With thanks to @darkicedragon for a quick beta :D

“Hmm. That’s strange.”

I glanced past the episode of _Sun Warriors_ playing on the HUD of my closed helmet. It was likely that Ratthi - one of the Preservation scientists - was just commenting on some astrological phenomenon. 

That was the whole reason they were out here at the far reaches of explored space, and we were passing by some very interesting sun or something - I don’t know what made it interesting, but all the scientist-groups on the Skeld were glued to their instruments so I assumed it was.

Ratthi wasn’t looking at his display, or even the porthole; he was looking around the room. Not at me, I was a common enough sight in the Preservation section of the Skeld. I wasn’t part of their group, but I kind of liked these humans and tended to hang around them when I was off duty. That, and their section got some of the best reception on the ship.

“What is it?” Arada asked from her own station, still logging notes on something.

“Mensah’s late. She’s never late.”

That...was true. Preservation’s head scientist was always early to everything.

“I can’t raise her on comms,” Overse said, frowning down at her wrist-com. “It’s not even connecting.” She shifted in her seat, nervous. “You don’t suppose…”

“Probably just a glitch, but I’ll go check,” I interrupted. I generally didn’t like joining in on conversations with humans, but I wanted the conversation to turn towards urban legends and shipboard rumours even less.

“Thank you, Eden,” Arada said, and I ducked out of the room.

Mensah was probably fine, but the nagging worry that I might have missed someone kept itching at me. See, here’s the thing.

I’m an Imposter.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, and yes I did kill the junior cook at the beginning of the journey, but in my defense, they were also an Imposter.

I ran over my options for finding Dr. Mensah. I could keep trying her comm, but that seemed likely to be futile. I could do a room-by-room search if I really wanted to waste my time - the public areas in the Skeld housed over a hundred humans (and one Imposter), and that didn't even start on the service, engineering, storage, and maintenance areas. No, my best option was security, which was just down the hall. The ship had fairly good camera coverage in public areas and corridors, all of which I’d mapped out proactively in case I needed a...secluded area.

Nobody was in Security, which annoyed me - we had a four-person security team for a reason. It was still a job, even if it was a cushy assignment. Cushy as far as I was concerned, at least. There’d been far less fighting and yelling this trip than my previous shipboard experiences had led me to expect, but then the Skeld was a step up from the usual rustbuckets I traveled on.

I flipped through the different sets of camera feeds, looking for Mensah, or anything out of place. If the problem was happening in someone’s private quarters, I was out of luck, but at least I could rule out most of the public and maintenance areas before I resorted to barging into rooms.

I flipped to the next lot and stopped, eyes drawn to a square of static signaling an offline feed. Well. That wasn’t suspicious at all.

Why yes, I was starting to get a really bad feeling about this.

That camera monitored the hallway along the EVA and shuttle section, two levels down and without a lift close to where I was.

I let a full-body shiver run through me, loosening all my joints, so that when I lifted up the grate in the floor, I could compact myself into the vent like the horror-terror humans found me to be. I all but poured myself down the shaft, heading blindly for my destination, and boy was I glad I’d memorized the vent layout.

Look, old habits die hard, okay?

I welled up out of the vent, rearranging myself to human form as I went, senses sharp as I could make them. That’s not a metaphor, I can sharpen or dull my senses within a decently wide range, though most of the time I leave them comfortably at the upper-middle range of what humans can perceive. Right now though, I needed to find Mensah, fast.

If this was all a misunderstanding, I’d feel very foolish, but at least I’d be a relieved fool.

I turned my head, listening for anything out of place, gauging acoustics. Hidden in the hum of the engines, I could just make out the muffled sound of human voices. That way. Sprinting down the corridor, I zeroed in on the noise. 

Slamming my hand down on the lock pad before I even looked through the little window in the door, I barreled into the EVA room. Someone in regular ship-board clothes with a grey trim - GreyCris? - was half-turned towards me, and I could just see the _actual fucking gun_ they were pointing at Mensah. I couldn't get a good look at her with Gun Asshole in the way, but she seemed to be crouched or half-collapsed and I didn’t smell any blood but that didn't stop me from seeing red.

If I couldn’t get a clear view of Mensah, that hopefully meant she couldn't’ see me. I had to get Gun Asshole to point that damn thing at me instead of either pointing it at Mensah or threatening to shoot her to get me to stand down. I let my primary mouth split open as I charged, a toothy slash all the way from neck to navel, and you bet that gun whipped around real quick.

Telling it like this makes it sound like I had some idea of what I was doing, and I cannot stress enough how much that was not the case. I was running on panic and momentum, and that came to a head as I reached Gun Asshole. I couldn’t afford to eat him in front of Mensah. I couldn’t let him shoot a metal slug in a spaceship. And I absolutely couldn’t let him get a second try at Mensah.

My hands came up and I gripped his head and twisted. There was a meaty ‘ _crunch’_ sound.

Gun Asshole dropped like a sack of rocks. Mensah stared at me. I stared back.

“Eden?” she asked in a shaky voice. She looked down at my leg, which was about the time I felt the sting of the bullet that Gun Asshole had put into me. Kneeling down to hide the wound and quickly closing up the entry wound (isn’t shapeshifting great?) I asked her if she was alright while also yelling into my com for backup.

Could I convince Mensah that she hadn’t seen a bleeding hole in my thigh? Only time would tell, and in the meantime I was going to lie my ass off.

My human was alive. That was the most important thing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With thanks to @darkicedragon for a quick beta. :D
> 
> Still not entirely sure where this is all going, if anywhere, but there'll probably be at least one or two more chapters.

In hindsight, killing the GreyCris scientist was a mistake. Not an avoidable one, maybe, but a mistake. Because without Gun Asshole alive to interrogate, the rest of the GreyCris scientists immediately tried to turn it around on me and Mensah.

After all, whose word did they have but mine and Mensah’s that Gun Asshole was the aggressor? What proof did we have that the gun wasn’t ours? I was known to be friendly with the Preservation team. What if Mensah had lured him down there specifically so that I could kill him and _blah blah blah._

Making it even worse, I’d had to sneak into Security that night and corrupt/delete all of the day’s footage. I did question Mensah beforehand, so I knew that it was unlikely any helpful footage of GreyCris getting her down to the EVA room existed, but the footage vanishing didn’t help our cause. I mean, it helped mine, because there’s no way I could have gotten from Security to the EVA area without getting caught on at least five cameras, and my absence would have been, as they say, sus.

The whole thing was, to put it mildly, annoying. GreyCris’ crocodile-tear antics weren’t enough to get either myself or Mensah spaced, but it did muddy the waters and got me suspended from duty. I mean, killing someone probably had something to do with that, but even with hindsight I wasn’t sure how I could have left him alive after he’d seen me in all my horror-terror glory. 

The ship’s doctor did confirm that Mensah had been struck on the temple, and that outside of the, ah, neck situation, the GreyCris scientist had no injuries. Not conclusive, but not damning. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the facilities to check for gunshot residue, given that it was such an antiquated weapon and that they weren’t, y’know, a crime lab - heck, the only reason I even knew about gunshot residue was because I watched a lot of historical dramas. 

I’d gotten out of having to undergo anything more than a cursory physical examination, thankfully, since I wasn’t showing any bruises or lacerations. Even the gunshot wound was long gone. Imposters can imitate humans, and we’re _very_ good at it, but a full medical scan will still pick up enough inconsistencies to raise questions.

What wasn’t gone, was my appetite. All that shapeshifting? Takes _beaucoup_ energy. Humans think they have it rough with one calorie-intensive evolutionary trait? Ha! Try having _two_. Yeah, both humans and Imposters have high intelligence, which takes a lot of fuel, but add shapeshifting on top of that, and it’s no wonder Imposters are obligate carnivores. We can’t stand around digesting plant matter for five hours at a stretch, we need that energy now!

All of which is to say that I wasn’t chowing down a pile of scrambled eggs the size of my head at breakfast, but only because I’d learned to be more subtle - this was my fourth helping. I’d already inhaled the three rashers of bacon each person was allowed for breakfast on the first go.

“How can you eat at a time like this?” Ratthi asked, plopping into the seat next to me. His tray held a cup of fruit and a muesli-with-yogurt concoction. Plants, bleh.

“Some of us work for a living,” I said past some eggs. That got a smothered cough of amusement from Baradwaj, who’d just reached the table.

I didn’t usually sit with Preservation during mealtimes, but the rest of the security team had been shooting me uneasy looks since I walked into the cafeteria, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with them, especially when I was this hungry.

The rest of Preservation joined us, Mensah still a little subdued, although you’d have to know what to look for. I’m not sure why I liked Mensah. All I can guess is that whenever she talked to anyone, it felt like she was really seeing them, and paying attention to them, and liked them anyway. She did it with me too - it was an unnerving sensation, but not a bad one. The rest of the team was fairly laid back and low-drama, which was a relief after some of the crews I’d traveled with.

Overse and Arada sat together, joined at the hip like usual. Ratthi sat between them and me - I think he had a crush on one of them, but I could be wrong. Across from him sat Pin-Lee; neatly dressed, as always - even when we were in full suits, hers always seemed like it had a few less creases than anyone else’s. Baradwaj and Volescu sat next to her, and Mensah sat beside them. Opposite from me was Gurathin, who was an asshole. Okay, that’s not entirely fair. He didn’t talk much, and was a bit more suspicious and attentive than the others, and as such I was uneasy around him and didn’t like him.

“Are we going to talk about it?” Gurathin asked. 

Several humans groaned and Ratthi said, “I just want to not-eat my breakfast in peace.”

“No, he’s right,” Mensah said. “We’re going to have to discuss it sooner or later.”

“Why target you, specifically?” I asked. It’d been bugging me all night.

She blew out a frustrated breath, fingers tightening on her eating utensils. “I don’t know.”

“GreyCris doesn’t have any reason to have a grudge against you, or Preservation in general?”

“No. I’d never even met any of them before this trip, and Preservation’s never had any dealings with them.”

“That you know of,” Pin-Lee added.

“Do _you_ know of any?” I asked her.

“No, but it’s something to check when we get back.” True, but not immediately helpful.

“Do you know that he _was_ going to kill you?” Overse asked.”Not,” she waved her hands in protest, “that I’m saying he wasn’t, I just- did he say anything? Why the EVA section?”

“He wanted me to get into a suit. I think he was intending to space me,” Mensah said, voice clipped. “I objected, and he struck me with the butt of the gun. Then Eden arrived.”

“Maybe they’re trying to upset Preservation by killing our planetary leader?” Gurathin asked.

“Wait. _What_?” And that’s how I found out that Mensah was the Preservation system’s elected leader. Their setup was that even if you were the elected head, you still had to do your dayjob, which sounded like a good way to die of exhaustion to me. Either that, or Preservation had the most boring and well-oiled governmental system I’d ever run across.

“I just don’t see what they’d gain from it,” Mensah said. “We have no quarrel with them. Besides, we have redundancies in place for an event like that.” 

Yeah, you’d have to, if your leader was going to go gallivanting off across the wilds of space.

Gurathin frowned. “Okay, so there’s no reason we can see that they’d be going after you specifically. Maybe they were just going after anyone?”

“Maybe he spaced that other crew-member, too?” Arada speculated. Damn. If I’d known the junior cook was going to be that much trouble I would have hunted them down before they’d boarded.

“And I heard all the footage from yesterday got deleted,” Gurathin added. “You have to admit that’s sus.” Oh goddamnit. 

Arada leaned in closer to Overse. “I really hope you’re wrong - if the footage deletion was deliberate, that implies that the GreyCris scientist wasn’t working alone.”

And _of course_ that’s when the lights flickered and died.


	3. Chapter 3

Everything was darkness and chaos. Yells of complaint and fear went up. Given everything that had happened yesterday, there was a zero percent chance that the lights failing was a coincidence, and there was no way in hell that I was going to give some asshole - human or Imposter - a shot at Mensah. I half-hopped onto my seat then put a hand on the table (yes it was bolted to the floor) and twisted and flipped to land right behind her.

“It’s me, don’t worry,” I said, placing a hand on her shoulder for a second to give her a reference for my position. Her breath jolted, but she just nodded. Yes I was using echolocation at this point. Being a shapeshifter meant that I’d built up a nice bag of tricks over the years. I scanned the room but nobody was moving towards the Preservation group.

One person turned on a small flashlight, throwing shadows everywhere and making my life harder, but the red emergency lights came up a second later. People were looking around frantically, some clutching at each other. Over by the Ship’s Crew table, three people popped up and headed for the door.

“Hey! Olive! Take security with you!” I called. Several people startled, including my fellow - and I use that term loosely - security guards. Sometimes it’s difficult to believe humans are fellow predators.

Someone from security joined them and I dismissed them as Not My Problem anymore.

“Eden, you can sit down,” Baradwaj said, “I think we’re safe.”

Yeah, that wasn’t happening.

It was a tense ten minutes, though the Captain showed up to help keep everyone calm, and had more people join us in the mess hall, which was annoying, because more people meant more attack vectors to keep an eye on.

The lights came back on to relieved sighs and scattered cheers and applause, while the Captain soothed everyone by promising updates some time in the future.

I was not liking the pattern that was emerging. 

Even I had considered it, hadn’t I? Before I tracked down Mensah and the GreyCris asshole - that there might be another Imposter on board. If I hadn’t gotten there in time, then a human vanishing plus this newest sabotage would fit what little the humans knew about Imposter predation. And I’d only made it worse with the footage deletion and the vanishing junior cook.

But why? I was fairly certain there wasn’t, actually, any other Imposters on board. So why would a human - or humans - duplicate this pattern? Was there someone onboard who was a target, and the surrounding chaff was to cover it up? But why not go for the main target first, since all of this was just making people more alert? Was Mensah an intentional target after all?

These kinds of thoughts kept circling in my head with no definitive answer. I didn’t want to leave my humans for too long, so my excursions into the vents to spy had to be relatively short and turned up nothing over the following day, especially since the rest of Security was actually doing their jobs for once, and I had to be careful of cameras.

The next day, at 11:37am G.M.T. (Greenwich Mean Time. No, I don’t know why they still set spaceship clocks to match a city on a planet that housed less than 1/10th of the human population.) my feed dropped out. So that was Comms messed with. It didn’t have quite the same impact as the lights going down, but then someone from the DeltFall group turned up missing.

After the lights sabotage, I’d made my humans promise to stay buddied up when I wasn’t there. Mensah was good about enforcing that, so I wasn’t too worried when I went to join in the search efforts. We found nothing, which told me that yeah, Mensah probably would have gotten spaced if I hadn’t come along, and that whoever was imitating Imposter behaviour didn’t have the stomach (or the tools) to leave chunks of humans lying around.

At dinner that night, there was a lot of finger pointing, especially at Preservation from GreyCris. I was getting real tired of GreyCris.

Captain Rose put everyone on the buddy system, except Security because there just weren’t enough of us to buddy up _and_ do our jobs. Everyone, including scientists, were supposed to keep an eye out for suspicious activity and report anything and basically, she was doing her best to brace for the next Imposter kill without saying the word ‘Imposter.’

This is less surprising than you might think. 

Imposters are the space-myth equivalent of bigfoot. Sure, everyone has a horror story they heard from a friend of a friend who knew someone who was on board a ship that had a horrible, no-good, murderous Imposter stowing away onboard, but it’s not like ships take actual precautions against evil, possibly alien mimics. Seriously suggesting it, even with these circumstances, would get Captain Rose a long visit to medical.

Compared to the number of humans, or even human ships, hopping around the galaxy at any given time, there aren’t that many Imposters. I mean, I assume. Running into another Imposter ship-board is rare for me. Most of us are assholes (antisocial loners without a lot of pack bonding instincts, so good luck borrowing a cup of sugar from one of us if we don’t like _you_ , personally), but on the whole, we don’t predate on humans. 

Not out of any kind of moral abstinence, mind you. While most pack animals have some concept of ‘revenge,’ humans have supercharged theirs, and even picking off the disliked or ill ones have a good chance of riling up the whole lot.

The one Imposter I know of that does make a game of the hunt…. The ships they hunt on tend to just...not come back to port. I think.

Look, it’s not like we’re a social species. We don’t keep in touch, we don’t have any kind of social media (which is not something I’m sad about - social media seems exhausting, and even humans will back me up on that). I couldn’t even give you an estimate on how many Imposters there actually are.

The only thing I knew for sure was that I was the only one of my kind on board the Skeld, and whoever was trying to imitate me was in for a rude awakening. Just as soon as I could find the damn Imposter imposter.


End file.
